Windywillow

Monday, July 31, 2006

What's eating my roses? Endelomyia aethiops?

I have many roses, and all are being eaten by these tiny little larva, hope you can see it on the leaf close-up. Is it a sawfly? Endelomyia aethiops? I googled all over and didn't find a lot of info on it, so hoping someone here can help. I sprayed all bushes yesterday with dishwash soap and water, but the larva are still here this morning. My wild roses are affected the worst. I am trying the BBC garden clinic message board as well, see if anyone there replies. Here's a pic of my Celestial alba:

Saturday, July 29, 2006

Fragrant Sweet Peas

These are grandiflorus Heirloom Sweetpeas. These date back from the 16th century, and they are so fragrant! I can smell their perfume a long way off. I have these planted with my runner beans, which seem a bit slow this year. Usually they both grow at the same pace. But I can see a few beans starting now.

UFO

Unidentified Flowering Occupant of the meadow. This is a huge plant that has giant fuzzy leaves and thistly-looking flowers filled with bees. It appeared in my mini meadow early this year, and I thought it looked interesting, so left it there. Does anyone know what it is? Is it invasive? Bad enough there are thistle-fluffies flying everywhere and rooting all over. I'm reluctant to get rid of it, I think it's a lovely looking weed.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Alien plants take over the garden!


Onion plants. They look like wierd alien plants to me, with thier clump of baby onions on top. This is my second year growing onions, so I'm a bit new at this. (I'm a bit new at any vegetable!) There is a smaller onion inbetween the alien things, that is growing seeds. Last year I planted seeds from my onion head, which are turning into nice looking onions. But the alien things? What do I do with those? I feel like they want to be planted maybe. I could try eating one.

Sunday, July 23, 2006

fruit

An apple plumps up on the little cooking-apple tree. My kids knocked off half the apples with a frisbee last week, seeing as there were only four apples growing this year. A bit annoying. Ah well, maybe more next year.

This was a yummy snack, and so easy to make! It's just whole wheat bread with cream cheese and strawberries. Mouthwatering!

pixie flowers and stripes

Linanthus are tiny little flowers, in many glowing colors. I planted a bunch on the kitchen windowsil, so I can see them as I wash dishes. And when I'm outside, they are just the right hieght to look at them closely and admire them.

Some pink flowers, impatiens and silene. Silene is another tiny flower, I just love them. Some day, I am thinking I would like to make a "pixie" garden, using candy-colored itsy-bitsy flowers. Maybe next year...

These nasturtiums decided to grow in my meadow with no help from me. How do they get there?? This particular bunch has developed striped leaves, which I have never had before. Can't wait to see what the flowers will look like. I will have to save seeds, I love the leaves.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Poppies and Sky

Well, I will have to admit, I photoshopped this image from 3 different pics I took. Because I liked the morning sky, and I liked the upshot of the poppies.

I do love these poppies, they are like rubies glowing in the sunlight. They are called "Cherry Glow", the seeds were an introductory offer from Thompson and Morgan.

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Daisies



I'm not sure what these daisies are called. I have had them for years and years. And every year they come out in July to greet me. Of course, I had to bring the clump with me from the old garden, they seemed not to notice and continued to put on thier show without fail.

Butterfly on the oregano


Went out to get some herbs for dinner, and this pretty small tortoiseshell butterfly was flitting around. She liked the oregano flowers best.

Poppy in the tarmac


Why? Why does this poppy want to grow out of the tarmac? I have perfectly good empty spaces in the garden! Actually, it looks funny sitting there on its own, like it has shunned its fellow flowers, had a bit of a tiff with the sweet pea!
I water it..

Thursday, July 13, 2006

What's in the meadow?

Woke up to see this lovely dark red poppy in the meadow this morning, had to go strait out in my pajamas to have a look.

Also in the meadow is a small patch of peppermint. I know it spreads, so I thought it would work well here. Funny, this meadow is home to a few vegetables as well, I have an old Christmas tree with beans growing up it, when the veg garden was flooding earlier this year, I put some of the seedlings here.

Acompanying me were a few cats. Here's Pippin amonst the bird's-foot trefoil.

Here's my neighbor's cat, Shed. She's hiding under a huge unknown plant, with fuzzy leaves. It's going to bloom soon, so maybe I can identify it. Very stately plant!

strawberry cheesecake


Yesterday evening we had the last of the cheesecake. Mmmmmmm.... It was really good, my daughter is a fantastic desert maker! Here's the recepie:

3/4 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla
16 oz cream cheese
1 pint heavy cream
a bunch of strawberries ( <- her words!)

1. cream together cheese, sugar, and vanilla
2. whip cream and fold into cheese mixture
3. blend strawberries and add to mixture
4. put in cake or pie tin, and refrigerate 6 hours
5. decorate with more strawberries, and eat!

Monday, July 10, 2006

Strawberries


My daughter is making a strawberry cheesecake this afternoon, we quickly picked all these before it started pelting rain! There are so many strawberries this year! Sometimes we just sit out there on the grass picking and eating...

My oak bonsai


I thought I would put in a few pics of my plants in pots. This is my oak tree,Taranis. He will be 10 years old this coming autumn. I recieved 3 seeds from a "tree parade" in Dublin 10 years ago, which I planted. I still have two little oak trees, the 3rd one I gave to a friend. I'm not sure where to plant him, I might just keep him as a bonsai. The other one is a little smaller, and not as nicely shaped, I might plant that one in the garden somewhere.

A sunflower "Autumn Time" sits at my back door, for me to admire. The first pic was 2 days ago. 2nd pic, this morning.
Bees seem to love it!! See, there's one buzzing around it when it's opened.
For some reason, this sunflower never got trasplanted to the garden, it's just been happily sitting there in a pot on the back stoop. I enjoy it there! Think I will grow another there again next year.

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Scintillation

I have been taking pictures of these roses, Scintillation, for several days, not satisfied with any of the results till yesterday evening. The sun was setting and casting back light through thier petals, and the roses lived up to thier name!
I had this rose at the front of the path into the meadow, climbing up a cheap rose arch. The arch collapsed after one year, dinky thing that it was. Last winter I moved the bush into the meadow itself, as this rose is meant to grow quite wide.

Violas again... I just adore them! There are some nice colors appearing. They are even growing out of the tarmac! The blueish ones in the center of this pic have been blooming since mid winter in my herb garden, where they had self seeded themselves. I left them there, thinking.. well, violas are edible. So here they grow with the oregano.

Friday, July 07, 2006

Marinette

I love the color of Marinette, an English Rose, the way it goes from yellow to blush pink. And it has a wonderful perfume, real rosey! But I think it is growing in the wrong place. It sits among vivid colors such as reds and oranges, where wild poppies and eschscholzia have self seeded. So I think next winter, I will move it to a different spot with paler colors.

Love-in-a-Mist and Virginia Stock. I'm a big fan of self seeders, and mostly let them have thier way. I've loved this stock for years, it has a lovely perfume. This is the spot I want to move Marinette to, I think the colors will be good together here. Nearby is my Graham Thomas Rose, a soft yellow color (not blooming at moment).

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Pretty orange poppy


Mixed into the front garden is one of the prettiest poppies I have ever seen. It looks like Papaver rupifragum. Must have come in one of my wildflower mixes, possibly from Secret Seeds, otherwise have no idea where it appeared from. It's soft orange in color and frilly-petaled. I'm going to collect some of the seed and cast it around here and there.

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Wildflowers


My front garden looks like a wildflower meadow. I do love wildflowers, and let plants like poppies and feverfew grow wherever they like.. within reason. I did pull up a lot of nasturtiums and honesty this spring, but a lot still managed to get through. Well.. it's colorful, and I like it. The bees were swarming all over today, they seemed to like the field poppies best.

A peachy rose

This is William Morris. I fell in love with David Austin's roses and bought several of his English Roses. This one used to be in my front garden. But for the past two years, the flower heads droop when they open up all the way, hiding thier beautiful faces. So I decided to reposition this rose into the meadow against the fence, where it seems a little happier. Their heads don't droop as badly now, and the bush seems a little more vigorous. Maybe it's a little warmer in this spot. But the advice I got was to water and feed well, and wait a few years for the bush to become established, as large flower heads tend to droop the first few years. Well, I hope so, because this is a most beautiful rose, and it has the largest flowers of all my roses.

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Blythe Spirit

This is Blythe Spirit. It's a cheerful rose that bloomed all summer last year. And it seems to have more flowers this year. I was talking with someone last night, she said horse manure has done wonders for her roses. And just today, I was reading Daughter of the Soil's blog, where she also mentioned manure causing her beans to grow better. I must try to find some for my own garden!

Monday, July 03, 2006

Red Roses and Malva

My red-orange roses have started blooming. I have no idea what this rose is called, I should probably look it up some day. This is the one that was given to me by my neighbor from the old place. I love the color, and it goes nicely with some malva "Mystic Merlin" growing right next to it. Everything is leaning over, there is a lot of strong wind out here, all my plants seem to be permanently tilted.